The Seventh Wheel
by demigod-and-thief18
Summary: Was just a one-shot, now it's a series of one-shots about Leo. Might be a little angsty sometimes. Warning: MOA spoilers!
1. Chapter 1

Leo cursed as he tried fixing the engine of the ship. It was his fault. He shouldn't have opened that stupid fortune cookie! Now two of his closest friends were in a place worse than hell and it was his entire fault!

Leo shouted in anger when his next attempt to fix the engine failed.

"Leo," a soft voice said, causing Leo to jump.

Leo spun around and his eyes met with golden ones. Leo sighed, relieved it wasn't someone else. "Hazel, what are you doing here?"

"You haven't eaten for two days." Hazel told him, walking closer to Leo. "I'm worried about you. Everyone else is worried about you."

"I'm fine." Leo muttered. He knew she was just trying to make him feel better. Leo was the seventh wheel, and all the others knew it too.

"No, Leo, you need to eat." Hazel said determinedly. "Come on, we're having lunch right now. There are tacos, your favorite." Hazel smiled at Leo, trying to persuade him.

Leo shook his head stubbornly. "I need to fix the ship. Annabeth and Percy are in-" Leo took a shaky breath. "Hazel, it's my fault. I opened that fortune cookie!"

"You had to so you could save our lives!" Hazel exclaimed. "Without the fortune cookie we would be dead. Annabeth and Percy aren't dead. They can survive. But we need to help them."

"Yeah, so that's why I need to fix the ship, so I can't take any breaks."

"Leo, you can't fix a huge ship without having eaten for two whole days. Come on, for me."

Leo looked at Hazel and reluctantly said, "Okay. But only for ten minutes!"

"Okay, for ten minutes." Hazel laughed softly, making Leo's heart melt. He loved her laugh-wait, no. He can't. He can't fall for Hazel! She has a boyfriend!

Hazel grabbed Leo's hand and dragged him out of the engine room and up onto the top deck, to the kitchen.

Everyone was in there (except for their two friends in Tartarus).

Piper was the first to notice them and smiled brightly. "Leo! You're here!" She stood up and hugged Leo.

Leo hugged her back weakly. "Uh, yeah. Hi."

Jason grinned at Leo. "Bro, you've been in the engine room for two whole days! I felt like I haven't seen you in ages!"

Leo sat down and the smell of food overcame him. "Pass the tacos."

Leo ate about ten tacos, but don't blame him. He hasn't eaten in two days!

Everyone was talking, but not about the quest. No one felt like bringing up where Annabeth and Percy were. It hurt too much. Besides, they all knew what they had to do: go to the House of Hades, get Annabeth and Percy out of hell, and win the war.

Leo finished his last taco and stood up. "I'll get the ship finished in a few hours." He resisted the urge to say _hopefully._

"Leo, why don't you stay and talk for a while? It'll help clear your mind." Hazel said gently, pulling Leo back down.

"I can't. I need to finish the ship." Leo protested, but he was still too weak from lack of food and sleep.

"No, you don't." Piper ordered, charmspeak threaded through her words. "You need to talk like you normally do, make jokes, eat some more, and then sleep."

Leo tried protesting, but the thought of sleep made him crack. "Fine."

For the next hour Jason, Piper, Frank, Hedge, Hazel, Nico, and Leo shared stories about recent quests. Finally Leo couldn't stand it and felt his eyelids droop. Leo didn't even bother to try and stay awake. He just drifted off to sleep.

His dream was horrible. It was a complete recreation of his mother's death. The whole thing, but instead of looking at eight-year-old Leo, he was watching his mother die.

After that atrocious memory all Leo saw was black. It was completely silent except for a few words whispering and hissing in his mind, _"You will always be the outsider. The seventh wheel."_

"Leo, wake up!" A new voice echoed. Leo lifted his head and saw Hazel looking at him, her eyes full of concern. They were the only two in the room. The others must've gone off to do work or something.

"Yeah?" Leo said groggily, trying to get the dream out of his head.

"Leo, are you okay?" Hazel asked gently.

"Yeah, why?"

"You were saying that you were the seventh wheel."

"Oh. It was nothing."

"Leo, you can't take what Nemesis said to heart. It's not true."

"Is it?" Leo suddenly got angry. He didn't need anyone to take care of him. He didn't need charity. "I sort of am, Hazel! You can't deny it! There are seven of us. One person has to be the leftover wheel. The useless piece of equipment. And that's me!"

Hazel looked shocked at Leo's outburst. "Leo, that's not true. You're never going to be alone."

"Well I want to be." Leo snapped. Then he looked down at his hands muttered, "I'm sorry. It's just…my dream…I watched her die."

Hazel immediately knew that Leo meant his mother. She never knew exactly how she died, but Piper told Hazel that Leo felt like it was his fault when it wasn't.

"Oh, Leo." Hazel hugged Leo. "I'm so sorry. But I'm sure that's not what happened. Gaea just wants you to think that's what happened."

"It was too real." Leo shook his head.

"I know. But it'll turn out good soon. Don't worry." Hazel reassured him.

But all Leo could here were those words: _the outsider. The seventh wheel._


	2. Super Bowl Sunday

**Yeah, so I know this doesn't really have anything to do with the last chapter, but I decided to just do Lazel one shots…so yeah…it might seem a little OOC, but whatever. Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson. If I did, they would not be suffering Tartarus *sobs***

Leo Valdez shouted at the TV. "No! Why did you do that?"

"Leo, what are you doing?" A soft voice asked behind him.

Leo jumped and turned around, his eyes meeting gold ones. "Oh, Hazel, it's just you."

"What are you doing?" Hazel repeated. "It's one in the morning!"

"I'm watching the Super Bowl." Leo replied, turning his attention back to the TV. "What? The Ravens scored at touchdown?"

"What's that?" Hazel asked, looking curiously at the TV.

Leo laughed. "You're kidding, right?"

Hazel shook her head. "No, I'm not. What is it?"

The realization dawned on Leo. "Oh, that's right. You were born in the forties. You weren't even alive by the first Super Bowl."

"Yeah. Isn't that football?" Hazel pointed to the TV.

"Yeah, it is. One of the best sports in the world." Leo grinned manically. "Have you seen a game before?"

"No, I haven't. Sammy played football once, but said he hated it because he was the shortest player."

Leo snorted. "Well, _bisabuelo_ and I must have something in common, other than our awesomeness."

Hazel smiled. "So how do you play football?"

Leo gaped. "You don't know how to play football?"

Hazel shook her head. "I never got around to it. I sort of died, remember?"

Leo's face went a little pink. "Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot about that."

"It's fine."

They sat in silence for a moment, watching the game. Finally Hazel said, "So how do you play?"

For the next few minutes Leo taught Hazel all the rules of football and how to play.

"So whoever gets the most points at the end of the fourth quarter wins?" Hazel asked.

"Yep. Right now it's the end of the first quarter. Do you want to watch the rest?" Leo said, strangely shy.

"Sure." Hazel nodded. "But what's the Super Bowl?"  
Leo grinned. "It's when all the NFL teams play against each other and they choose the two teams that won the most and they play against each other. Whoever wins is the best team of the year."

"So this is this year's?"

"Sort of. It was originally played in February, but I was never able to watch it because of building the Argo II and stuff. It's hard to watch football when you have to build a giant ship all by yourself." Leo shrugged, sounding kind of sheepish.

"You built this whole thing by yourself?" Hazel exclaimed.

Leo's face burned. "Not by myself…some of the times. The Athena and Hephaestus cabins helped."

"Leo, you're amazing." Hazel said, laughing a little.

Leo just shrugged and muttered, "Nah, I'm the seventh wheel."

Hazel sighed. She and Leo would talk and sometimes the whole 'seventh wheel thing' would be brought up. "Leo, that's not-"

Leo interrupted her. "Yeah, yeah, I know. We've talked about this too much. Let's just watch the game."

Hazel bit her lip but didn't know what to say, so she started watching the game. "Who's playing?"

"The Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers."

"Who's winning?"

"The 49ers, zero to three." Leo replied, keeping his eyes glued to the screen.

"And who do we _want_ to win?"

"I personally don't care. I just want a close game. But you might want the 49ers to win since they're from San Francisco and that's where CampJupiter is." Leo shrugged. "I just wish that the Dallas Cowboys were in the Super Bowl, since I'm from Texas."

"You are?"

"Yep."

"Oh." Hazel said, and then started watching the game. She watched as the Ravens ran and she shouted, "A touchdown? Oh, come on!"

Leo looked at Hazel in surprise. "Hazel?"

"Yeah?"

Leo didn't know what to say. "Uh, where you like possessed by an eidolon? That was not a very Hazel-like thing for you to say."

Hazel's face seemed to get a little pink. "I was just getting into the game…"

"I wasn't saying that like it was a bad thing!" Leo said immediately. "I just never expected you to say that, you know?"

Hazel laughed and nodded. "Let's just watch the game."

Leo agreed and up until halftime they were shouting whenever there was a bad play.

"I'm going to go get some snacks." Hazel said, getting up and walking quickly to the kitchen.

Leo sat back and smiled. Then all the lights went out at the Super Bowl. Leo's smile wavered. "What? No! The power went out!"

"What is that noise?" A new voice asked behind Leo.

Leo turned his head. "Hey, Frank. I'm just watching the Super Bowl."

"Super Bowl…" Frank scratched his head. "Isn't that the big football game in America?"

"Yeah." Leo nodded. "What do you need?"

"I heard shouting and it woke me up. What are you doing watching football at three in the morning?"

Leo explained how he wasn't able to watch the Super Bowl in February and this was the only time he could watch it.

Frank raised his eyebrows and muttered to himself, "Who watches football games at three in the morning?"

Hazel ran into the room holding a bunch of food. "What'd I miss?"

"The power went out." Leo told Hazel glumly. "The first time ever in Super Bowl history!"

Hazel sighed. "Really? Of all times, my first Super Bowl! I swear, the gods hate us."

"Hazel?" Frank sounded confused. "What're you doing?"

"Hi Frank." Hazel waved. "I'm watching the game!"

Frank opened his mouth and then closed it, obviously puzzled. "I'm just going to go to bed." He left, shaking his head and muttering, "What the Pluto just happened?"

"So what snacks did you get?" Leo asked.

"Licorice, popcorn, coke, and chips and salsa." Hazel replied.

"We're not going to get any sleep tonight." Leo laughed. "The Super Bowl is great!"

Hazel laughed with him. "And to think I thought football was boring!"

Leo fake-gasped. "Hazel! How could you even think that?" He mocked.

Hazel just smiled and started eating some popcorn. "Whatever. Hey, isn't this recorded?"

"Yeah, why?"

"So can't we just skip to the actual game? I think that's how technology works…"

Leo stared at Hazel. "You're right! Gods, I'm so stupid." He grabbed the remote and started to fast forward to when the power got back on.

For another hour, Leo and Hazel watched the game. At the end of the fourth quarter Hazel fell asleep…on Leo.

Leo's face burned, but he didn't want to wake Hazel up. Instead, he watched the rest of the game. When it was over, Leo was exhausted but didn't want to sleep.

"Hazel, do you want me to bring you to your room?" Leo whispered to Hazel.

Hazel groaned. "Who won?"

"The Ravens."

"Score?"

"34 to 31."

"Close game."

Leo chuckled. "Yeah. Do you want me to carry you to your room?"

"I can walk." Hazel mumbled and stood up. "What time is it?"

"Four in the morning."

Hazel stumbled down the hall, but would occasionally lean against the wall for support.

Leo rushed over to Hazel as she was about to fall over and steadied her. "Here, let me help."

Leo guided Hazel to her room and she climbed into bed, curling up into a ball. Leo pulled the covers over Hazel so she wouldn't freeze. He could help but whisper to Hazel, _"Buenas noches, mi joya. Por cierto, creo que Te amo."_

"What does that mean?"

Leo smiled sadly at Hazel. He would never tell her what that means. "Nothing." Leo resisted the urge to kiss her forehead and walked out of Hazel's room quietly, not wanting to wake Hedge.

The next morning, breakfast was horrible. Leo could barely open his eyes, since only got about three hours of sleep.

"Are you okay?" Piper asked Leo when he almost fell asleep with his face in his pancakes (luckily he hadn't put syrup on them yet).

"Tired." Leo mumbled. "Super Bowl. Three hours of sleep."

Piper sighed. "Oh, Leo."

A new voice exclaimed next to Leo, "Leo, when is the next game?"

Leo sat up straight and looked to where the voice was coming from. "Hazel? How are you not a zombie? You got as much sleep as I did!"

Hazel shrugged. "Adrenaline from the game, maybe. I don't know. When's the next one?"

Leo sighed. "Hazel, the football season is over until fall."

"What?" Hazel exclaimed. "But…why?"

Leo shrugged. "I don't know. That's just how they do it."

Hazel sighed. "Well, I guess when the war is over we'll have to watch the games then."

Leo's heart lifted. "That was the best thing I've heard all day. _When the war is over._ Not _if we're still alive by then._"

Hazel smiled. "Because we're going to survive. Can you pass the pancakes? I'm starving."

Leo tried not to smile as he gave Hazel the plate of pancakes. If Hazel thought that they could make it through the war, they could. Hazel has always been right.

**Hoped you like this one-shot. I know this is a few days after the Super Bowl, but the Super Bowl is like a second Christmas to my family. Read and review!**


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